BRYONIA DIOICA. RED-BERRIED BRYONY. 
Class XXI. MONCECIA.— Order V. PENTANDRIA. 
Natural Order, CUCURBIT ACE Jl. THE GOURD TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents the corolla spread open to show the anthers; (6) the germen, with its styles and stigmas; (c) the ripe fruit. 
This is an indigenous plant, with annual stems and a perennial root; very common in dry hedges, and 
flowering from May to September. 
From a large, fleshy root, which is often as thick as a man’s thigh, of a white colour, and subdivided 
below, this species of bryony rises with several slender, herbaceous, annual, rough, leafy stems, somewhat 
branched, and climbing by means of tendrils to the height of several feet. The leaves are large, with five 
acute lobes, hairy on both sides, rough all over with minute callous tubercles, and disposed alternately on 
strong hairy footstalks. The flowers are dioicous, or male and female on different plants ; of yellowish 
colour, and spring in paniculiform racemes from the axillae of the leaves. Miller observed that, after the 
first two or three years, old roots sometimes produced both fertile and barren blossoms on the same plant, 
“ as is proper to all the other known species of this genus.” The calyx of the stamineous flower is catase- 
palous, bell-shaped, and deeply divided into five narrow, pointed, segments ; the corolla is also bell-shaped, 
and divided into five deep segments which are ovate and spreading. The filaments are three ; short, thick, 
and furnished with five anthers, of which four are in pairs, united on two of the filaments, and the fifth 
solitary on the third filament. The calyx and corolla of the pistilline flowers are superior, and resemble 
those of the stamineous ones, but are smaller. The germen is inferior, surmounted by a short, strong, erect, 
3-cleft style, with large, cloven, triangular, spreading stigmas. The fruit is a smooth, globular, red berry, 
about the size of a common garden-pea, containing five or six roundish seeds, in pairs, attached to the rind. 
“The true Bryonia alba of Linmeus, found on the continent, has black fruit, being called alba from its white 
root, in contradistinction to Tamus, the black-rooted Bryony.” 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The fresh root, which is spongy, has an extremely dis- 
agreeable odour, and a particularly nauseous taste, both which appear to depend principally upon an acrid 
principle that can be so dissipated by repeated washings with water, as to leave a fecula similar to that 
yielded by the potatoe ; and which, in the scarcity which followed the French revolution, was resorted to 
as food, and found to be very nutritious. Vauquelin has lately analyzed the root. By maceration in water, 
and subsequent pressure in a linen cloth, the starch was separated, and obtained in a state of purity. The 
bitter substance was soluble both in alcohol and water, and appeared to possess the properties of pure bitter 
principle. It was found also to contain a considerable portion of gum ; a substance which is precipitated 
by infusion of galls, and which Vauquelin denominates vegeto-animal matter, some woody fibres, a small 
portion of sugar, and a quantity of super-malate of lime, and phosphate of lime. 
Poisonous Effects. — Given in over-doses, the root of Bryony exerts a powerful influence on the 
lining membrane of the stomach and bowels ; producing all the effects of an acrid cathartic, such as 
sickness, intense pain, and inflammation and all its consequences. Orfila infers from numerous experi- 
ments — 
1st. — That the bryony root acts upon men in the same manner as upon dogs. 
2nd. — That its effects may depend on the inflammation it produces, and the sympathetic irritation of 
the nervous system, rather than on its absorption. 
3rd. — That its deleterious properties reside especially in the portion which is soluble in water. 
Treatment. — First evacuate the stomach by ipecacuanha powder, suspended in warm water. After 
the stomach has been evacuated, give repeated doses of the sulphate of magnesia, dissolved in almond 
emulsion, which will not only operate on the bowels, but serve to defend the mucous membrane of the in- 
